Distribution and structure of deep-sea demersal fish assemblages across the central and western Pacific Ocean using data from undersea imagery

Abstract

Demersal deep-sea fish assemblages from islands and seamounts are poorly described, even in the Hawaiian archipelago. Knowledge across all depths, in similar settings, is even sparser for other archipelagos in the central and western Pacific. However, recent remotely operated vehicle (ROV) explorations and archived video from human-occupied submersible dives conducted by the Hawai`i Undersea Research Laboratory (HURL) provide an opportunity to explore the structure of these assemblages. Here we describe demersal fish assemblages across the central and western Pacific, including in four Marine National Monuments, and examine the relationship of the assemblages to depth and environmental conditions. We used data collected from 227 underwater vehicle dives resulting in the identification of 24,837 individuals belonging to 89 families and 175 genera. The most frequently occurring genera at depths of 250-500 m were Epigonus, Setarches, Polymixia, and Antigonia, between 500-1000 m were Chlorophthalmus, Aldrovandia, and Neocyttus, and between 1000-3000 m were Synaphobranchus, Kumba, Halosaurus, Ilyophis, and Ipnops. There are strong changes in the fish assemblages with depth and region, and assemblages become more similar between regions with greater depth. Depth and region explained the most variance in assemblage structure followed by seafloor particulate organic carbon flux (a food supply proxy), concentrations of dissolved oxygen, and salinity. The Line Islands and Tokelau Ridge had the highest values of seafloor particulate organic carbon flux for all depth zones investigated (250-3000 m) and the highest abundance of fishes at 250-500 m and 500-1000 m, respectively. Taxon accumulation curves indicated that diversity at the genus level within all regions and depth bins (except 1000-2000 m and 2000-3000 m) had not been reached with the existing sampling effort. However, when combining samples from all regions, diversity generally appeared to decrease with depth. Overall, this study demonstrates that there are significant regional differences in the composition of the deep-sea fish fauna as well as differences across depth. Such distribution patterns suggest that the four Marine National Monuments (Papahānaumokuākea, Marianas Trench, Pacific Remote Islands, and Rose Atoll Marine National Monuments, encompassing an area of 3,063,223 km2) are not replicates of diversity, but complementary components of the regional fauna.